Northumberland Line Set To Hit 250,000 Passenger Journeys By Easter
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Northumberland Gazette.
This is the sub-heading.
The Northumberland Line is set to hit a major milestone by Easter with a quarter of a million journeys undertaken.
These are the first three paragraphs.
Three of the line’s planned six stations are now in operation following the recent opening of Blyth Newsham.
However, council leader Glen Sanderson was forced to defend the £300 million investment in the railway line at Wednesday’s meeting of the county council.
It followed criticism from former council leader Jeff Reid, who has been a long-time sceptic of the impact reopening the line between Newcastle and Ashington would have.
There’s no pleasing some people.
The line just seems to be following a better pattern to the Dartmoor Line, which I wrote about in Dartmoor Line Passes 250,000 Journeys On Its First Anniversary, As Rail Minister Visits To Mark Official Opening Of The Station Building.
But then Newcastle is a much larger city than Exeter and the Northumberland Line serves more towns and villages than the Dartmoor Line, so it is not surprising, it has met the 250,000 milestone earlier.
I think it’s time to start building the next new line.
The Anonymous Widower 
For an open running railway £300m was utterly ridiculous and the farebox will never cover the capital costs. Okehampton was substantially more cost effective but given the catchment area of the Northumberland line im sure will generating 1m journeys / year very quickly
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | April 1, 2025 |